2024 has begun and so have the smartphone launches for the year. A week after the Redmi Note 13 Series launch, its sub-brand Poco announced its Poco X6 5G Series in India today. The Poco X6 Series includes 2 smartphones- Poco X6 5G and Poco X6 Pro 5G (review here). The vanilla Poco X6 5G is claimed to be a rebrand of the recently launched middle member of the Note 13 Series, the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G. This is because Poco X6 5G shares the same display specs, chipset, and battery specs with the Redmi Note 13 Pro.
On paper the Poco X6 5G seems to be an impressive mid-ranger with specs like a 6.67-inch AMOLED panel, 5100mAh battery, 67W charging, Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset, and 64MP main camera, but how does the device perform in real-world situations? Let us find out.
Poco X6 5G Review Snapshot
Editor’s rating: 3.8/5
Design
Display
Software
Performance
Camera
Battery
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Pros
- Fast charging speed
- Efficient SoC
- Impressive Display
- Stylish design
Cons
- Loads of Bloatware
- Runs Android 13
- Underwhelming Audio quality
- Useless 2MP camera
Poco X6 5G Price & Availability
The Poco X6 5G will be available in the following storage configurations-
- 8GB RAM+256GB storage-Rs. 21,999
- 12GB RAM+256GB storage-Rs. 23,999
- 12GB RAM+512GB storage-Rs. 24,999
It comes in 3 colors- Snowstorm white, Mirror Black, and Blue colorways and will be available via Flipkart starting January 16. Pre-orders will begin tonight at 8 PM IST.
Poco X6 5G Review: Design and Build
The Poco X6 5G is being helmed as the rebrand of the Redmi Note 13 Pro but in terms of design, it is different from the Note. The Poco X6 5G has a dual-tone design with a glass back panel and a square camera module at the back. I received the Snowstorm white color model and the device shone bright when sunlight fell on it. The rear panel has this marble-inspired finish which looks gorgeous. It has a glossy look and smooth finish but the good part is that the white part doesn’t catch smudges. Slight smudges can be seen on the black camera module portion, but you can easily wipe them off. The device has curved edges and feels light in hand. Although it doesn’t have a particularly sleek look, but it manages to fit in the palm of your hand for one-hand operation.
The rear panel houses a black square camera module that houses triple camera lenses and an LED flash. The protrusion of the sensors is noticeable, so much so that it makes the device wobble when kept on a flat surface. At the side of the sensors is the Poco branding and the text ‘64MP OIS’.
Let us talk about functionality next, the Poco X6 5G has volume rockers as well as a power button on the right edge while the left side is vacant. The bottom edge houses a SIM tray, USB-C port, and speaker grille while the top edge includes another speaker, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and an IR blaster.
Poc0 X6 5G Review: Display
Poco X6 5G sports a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a 1.5K resolution. The display features slim bezels and a center punch hole cutout for the selfie camera. The display size feels adequate while watching content but this does not make the device uncomfortable to hold in hand. Not only is Poco offering 1.5K resolution, but it is the second phone in its segment to come with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection, Redmi Note 13 Pro was the first one that made its debut last week. This ensures that the display is safe from accidental drops.
The Poco X6 5G supports 120Hz refresh rate and this can be felt while using the device as browsing and gaming are smooth. Content consumption is also a breeze on this smartphone as it supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ for best-quality visuals. I watched movies on Netflix and Hotstar and the viewing experience was good. Viewing angles were decent and so were the colors and details.
The most common problem with displays of mid-rangers is their brightness. The Poco X6 display can hit 1800 nits brightness level which ensures that the screen is visible indoors as well as outdoors under direct sunlight. The legibility was better than quite a few devices in this segment. In terms of audio, it has a dual stereo setup with Dolby Atmos support. The sound is loud enough to be heard across a medium-sized room but the problem is it loses character as the volume levels are increased. The audio quality till the volume is 60% is way better than what it becomes at 80%. The sound feels slightly distorted at higher volume levels.
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Poco X6 5G Review: Performance
Just like Redmi Note 13 Pro, Poco X6 5G is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 SoC. It is a 4nm SoC that was announced in October 2023 and is a successor to the Snapdragon 778G. During my usage, the chipset performed all day-to-day tasks well. At times over 10-12 apps were running simultaneously in the background (which included gaming and editing apps) but Poco X6 didn’t show any stutters or lags.
While Note 13 comes with 256GB maximum storage, the Poco X6 variant I received had 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB UFS 3.1 onboard storage. Paired with a Snapdragon 7s gen 2 chipset and Adreno 710 GPU, the RAM further ensured the seamless operation of the device. Even with slightly longer gaming sessions, there were no lags or hang-ups. 512GB storage ensured ample space to store documents, files, videos, images, and audio locally in the device’s gallery. Various benchmarking tests were performed on the device, here are the results.
As for gaming, the device can handle heavy games like BGMI (with Ultra HD+ frame rates) and Call of Duty (with High and Max Frame rates) for an average of 20-30 minute sessions, but anything beyond that starts warming up the device and slow down the performance. Overall, Poco X6 5G mostly tackles everything you throw at it pretty well.
Coming to software, it runs Android 13-based MIUI 14 out of the box. This is a bummer as most of the smartphones in 2024 will arrive with Android 14 pre-installed. Poco X6 Series is also scheduled to get HyperOS update which is also not running on Poco X6 as of now. This is disappointing for a device that is priced above 25k. Although the updates are promised to roll out soon, at the time of launch, the smartphone will offer the same old MIUI experience.
Moreover, the device comes with loads of bloatware as apps like Netflix, Amazon, Linked In, Phone Pe, Snapchat, Spotify, and various games as well. Although most of these apps and games can be uninstalled as per the user’s needs brands should seriously consider minimizing or doing away with bloatware on devices priced above Rs. 20,000.
Otherwise, there are various customizations and personalization options available. These include One-handed mode, live wallpapers, screen recorder, floating window, and more. Poco has also promised 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security patches.
POCO X6 5G Review: Cameras
Poco X6 5G sports a triple rear camera setup including a 64MP main, 8MP ultrawide, and a 2MP macro lens. The front houses a 16MP snapper for selfies and video calls.
Let’s talk about the main 64MP camera first. Poco was given a 64MP camera earlier in the X4 Series as well and this time the performance of this sensor doesn’t disappoint. The images clicked in daylight are bright, crisp, and full of details. The colors look natural and rich and the dynamic range is impressive. Shadows looked warm and on zooming in there was no distortion around the edges. Low-light photography is decent as well. The camera UI is straightforward as well with HDR toggle, AI filters, and other options like panorama, slow motion, macro, etc.
The 8MP ultrawide angle camera can cover a vast scene and the shots still have detailing when zoomed in. The device supports 2X, and 4x zoom, and digital zoom goes all the way up to 10X. However, anything taken after 6X zoom-in loses details and starts accumulating noise.
2MP macro camera clicks close-up shots that include very little detailing and edge detection as there is no autofocus available. These shots are just about ok.
The Poco X6 can record 4K videos at 30fps and 1080p videos at 30/60/120fps. It comes with EIS and there are 12 in-built filters as well. Slow-motion videos are also supported at 120fps for 1080p.
Talking about the selfie camera, the Poco X6 5G has a 16MP lens at the front which gives decent selfies with ample detailing. There are AI filters and beautification options available that can adjust skin tones, spots, complexion, and size of your eyes, but if you are someone who likes no-filter selfies, you can enable the Original mode to remove all filters. In the original mode, the skin tones look natural and real and the objects in the background are made secondary with the subject in the frame being the main focus. All in all, it gives social media-worthy selfies for sure.
Poco X6 5G Review: Battery Life and Charging
Poco X6 5G packs a similar 5100mAh battery as the Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G. With light usage, the battery easily lasts all day long. Light usage includes browsing social media, listening to music, surfing the internet, watching short videos, attending calls, messaging, and playing light games. However, if you have moderate to heavy usage including long gaming sessions, video editing, image editing, and watching content on OTT platforms then the battery will need to be recharged in 5-7 hours. Despite it being a 5100mAh battery, the device feels sleek, not bulky.
In today’s times when top brands are removing adapters from boxes, Poco is still bundling a 67W fast-charging adapter inside the box. This 67W fast charger recharges the battery from 0 to 100% in about 48 minutes, which is decent. If you don’t have much time and the device needs charging, the adapter will recharge it to 50% in just 22-23 minutes.
There are battery-saver and ultra battery-saver functionalities as well, switching them on will offer an additional battery life so that your device doesn’t die until you can access the adapter.
Review Verdict: Should you buy Poco X6 5G?
The Poco X6 5G packs a punch in many major departments. The smartphone has a bright AMOLED display, a fast Snapdragon chipset, a large battery, fast charging, and a good-looking design. Although the camera setup is slightly underwhelming and UI comes loaded with bloatware, then these won’t be a problem for those whose focus is on having a performance-oriented device and not a camera-centric one (in which case you should opt for Redmi Note 13 Pro with a 200MP sensor). For a price of Rs. 25,999 Poco X6 5G is a decent mid-ranger that can easily last all day and has a durable build. The smartphone offers most of those features that one needs in a mid-budget device, making it one of the options to consider among Redmi Note 13 Pro, iqoo Z7 Pro, Moto Edge 40, and Realme 11 Pro.
Reasons to buy
- Fast charging speed
- Efficient SoC
- Impressive Display
- Stylish design
Reasons to not buy
- Loads of Bloatware
- Runs Android 13
- Underwhelming Audio quality
- Useless 2MP camera
